Spring — 2005

Erica Collazo

Business

“I’d always planned on going to college. And now, since I’m the first one in my family to go to college, I get to set an example for younger sisters and cousins.”

“My family’s very supportive of me, and they were always encouraging me to go to college,” says Erica Collazo, in her first semester at SMC. “My aunts and uncles are all stuck in jobs that they don’t really like, and they told me, ‘You have to go to college and learn about some kind of work that you’ll find valuable every day of your life,’” she reports.

Just now, Erica reports enjoying every day she spends studying at SMC, with the possible exception of her commute. “I live in Boyle Heights, near East LA, and it takes me an hour and a half on the bus—each way—to get here. I mean, there are closer colleges for me. But I wanted to ‘escape’ family and friends and really focus on school and getting ahead. And at SMC,” she adds, “I’ve met all these really nice new people, and the classes are great. Very difficult at times, but still great.”

Speaking of ‘great,’ Erica had just returned from a night class where she reports she’s getting nearly all she can handle thrown at her. “My night class is in Intermediate Algebra, and we’re studying matrices and linear equations,” she says. “And today we had a really tough test,” she adds with an infectious laugh. “Then I had to make it home on the bus, which was rough. But since I’m going into business, it’s all just part of the plan.” Erica reports, “The EOPS office made so many things possible for me, like paying for all my classes. Nobody can say, ‘Oh, I don’t have the money to study.’ SMC has just about every program you could want to help you out. You just have to be willing to look.”

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